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Tuesday, October 9, 2018

The Lonely Center

It seems human thought on any major
issue subscribes to a binary worldview.You’re either “this” or you are “that.”And “this” is defined by the ways it is not “that.”The original Star Trek series even did an episode depicting the ludicrous places
such “this or that” takes us.Captain
Kirk and The Enterprise crew
encounter a planet that is at war.

The people of this planet are
completely black and white.One half of
their bodies is pure white.The other
half is pure black.Captain Kirk looks
at them, perplexed, and asks why they are killing each other.Bele[i]
is confused by Kirk’s question.“Why do
hate I them?” He asks Captain Kirk.“Just
look at them!”

Kirk
doesn’t understand.He says, “But, they
look just like you!”

Enraged,
Bele responds, “They are black on the left side!We are white on the left side, black on the
right side!It’s entirely different.”

Later
in the show, Bele is locked in mortal combat with his antagonist.His foe yells at him, “I’ll kill you, you
half-white.”Bele shouts back “You
miserable half-black.”

Any
reasonable person can see how idiotic this is.Most people have the ability to be reasonable.Yet last week, a crowd cheered our president
as he mocked a sexual assault victim.No
one in the crowd had any evidence that showed Christine Blasey Ford fabricated
her claims against Brett Kavanaugh.The
reason they supported the president is the people in that crowd decided it is
in their best interest to be on the president’s side.

Never
mind that sexual assault has been a scourge on justice and on women and on
vulnerable people in our country for all of our history.Only now are women raising their voices in a
way that says this evil must stop.Many
in that crowd who laughed at President Trump’s derision of Ms. Ford have
themselves been victims of violent sexual assault.Yet, they laughed because their side was
laughing.

On
the other side, those who oppose President Trump have not effectively proven
that Kavanaugh assaulted Dr. Ford.As I
thought about it, I thought about the immature ways I used to goof off with my
female friends in college.We would
should pies in one another’s’ faces, give piggy back rides, and sometimes
wrestle around.And we hugged.Considering how sexually active college
students are now (and were when I was in college), my own experiences sound
childishly naïve.But I don’t know if in
the midst of innocent shenanigans I have touched a woman in a way that she did
not like but was afraid to say.I was
not sexually active, but did I inadvertently hurt someone?Democrats and feminists have not proven
Kavanaugh did anything or intended to.

But
the loudest voices in our society do.The
voices of those who sit in the center and consider all perspectives are drowned
out so that all that is heard are the extremes.This bipolarity is claiming rule in churches.

In
this first quarter of the 21st century, the issue ripping American
churches apart is the status of LGBTQ persons.Can they be full participants, including ordained ministers?Will the church perform same-sex
marriages?These would be welcoming and affirming churches.Or, if the church defines Homosexuality
as sinful based on Biblical norms for marriage and human sexuality, must the
church then segregate LGBTQ persons as “them.”Doing this, then must that church restrict the participation of LGBTQ
persons in the life of the church?

Is
it possible to be a church that includes people who think the Bible says
homosexuality is sinful and people
who are in same-sex marriages?Can
people from both groups exists as brothers and sisters in Christ in a
church?Or must the church decide for
one group and against the other?

I
sit in the middle on most issues.I can
see the reasons people on each side feel the way they do. Being in the middle
doesn’t mean I don’t have a position.I
almost always do.And I feel as strongly
about my position as do those at the opposing poles.But, I don’t feel that just because you and I
differ in opinion we have to be on opposite sides.

·I’m
pro-life, to the extreme.You’re
pro-choice, no compromise!You and I can
sit together in church and sing songs of praise and worship side-by-side.I know God hears your praise and loves you as
much God loves me.

·I’m
a believer in affirmative action.You
oppose it.Maybe we’ll have heated
conversations about it, but in the end, we can be united in Christ.We can be a part of the same church family,
brothers to each other.

·I
believe the Bible clearly says homosexuality is sinful.You’re a woman married to another woman.You and I can say the Lord’s Prayer together.Though
we differ on the issue, we are united in Christ.

·I
know “white privilege” is one of the great of evils of systemic racism that
renders our country broken and threatens to make true justice for all people
impossible.You reject the notion of
systemic racism and you insist you have never benefited from any type of
privilege.We strongly disagree.We can still serve each other communion, the
body and bread of Christ.Even with our
differences, we have this in common. We desperately need the life Jesus gives
and the only way we get there is through Him.It’s true for us both.

The
Center is becoming a dreadfully lonely place.I know am I not the only one occupying space in the center.But there are fewer people here than at the
poles.Newer Christian writers and
evangelical bloggers desire to share Christ evangelically and to work for social justice and compassion.They insist on Biblical Christianity and they love all people including LGBTQ
persons.These new evangelicals don’t
fit the Left-Right bipolar paradigm. In their books and blogs, they often
search for a “third way.”That’s
probably a futile effort.Most human
beings are more likely to revert to the base simplicity of the poles than to
live in the dangerous tension of the uncertain middle.In the middle, all views are respectfully,
thoughtfully considered.I don’t think
there is such a thing as a “third way.”

What
I am coming to understand is that the middle is difficult.It requires that faith and wisdom (reason)
wed.The middle demands that those who
live there think things through, wrestle with beliefs, and give love – the love
of Christ – fully to all.People in the
middle are there because they choose to be there.They find blessing in the other
middle-dwellers they meet.And they come
to learn (I have come to learn) that the only true seekers are the people
willing to venture from the simplistic safety of the poles to the treacherous
tempest in the middle.

So
why do it?Why live in the middle?I can only give one reason.The God who reaches to people in the middle
is infinitely bigger than the small god of the poles.The God in the middle exhibits deeper love,
more extensive grace, and more transforming compassion.I want to know that God.There are days that I absolutely hate the
middle.That I am writing this probably
tips you off that today is one of those days.But I won’t flee to a pole just because I am feeling sad right now.The God who can truly lift me out of this
funk and make me become a better me is here.The God who will show me how to love as He loves me is here.Yes, the middle is hard.And it is where I belong.

[i]
Bele was played by Frank Gorshin, the actor who depicted the Riddler on the
1960’s Batman tv series; https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0331319/?ref_=ttfc_fc_cl_t13

2 comments:

Shared this on Facebook the other day but your post reminded me of it. Harry S. Truman said: "It is understanding that gives us an ability to have peace. When we understand the other fellow's viewpoint, and he understands ours, then we can sit down and work out our differences."